“Alice Anne, could you send me a copy of that little booklet you did for your classes on self-healing?” It was my old friend, Pam Norris. She’d had knee surgery and was in pain. She’d been given pain meds, she’d been to a healer who helped her a lot— but she was still hurting. Then she remembered that I’d been teaching workshops on using energy for self-healing. She wanted to be able to work on herself.

I receive calls like this frequently; often from people I don’t know. “I’m a friend of someone who did self-healing training with you. Can I get a copy of the booklet you used in the workshop?” Trouble is I was almost out of copies. I could print some more, of course, but there’s so much more I’d like to include. I haven’t been teaching the workshop for a few years, but I still use the technique every day.

A magical thing happens when you place your hands on your body, make a few symbols in the air and call on the spiritual source of your choice (or none, if that’s your choice). The first time I did I remembered how I felt when I learned to work a yo-yo in the first grade. I know this sounds silly, but I’d been watching second and third grade virtuosos walking the dog with their yo-yos, making them swing out and snap back. It seemed like a miracle when I learned I could master these amazing skills, too.

I had many experiences with powerful healers before I decided to use energetic healing on myself. I’d interviewed Harry Edwards, thought to be the greatest spiritual healer of his time. I watched the hands of Reverend Orbito, the Philippine psychic surgeon, vibrate until they dematerialized— and then dematerialize the abdominal flesh of the woman whose cancer he was treating. I’m going to tell more stories about some of the extraordinary personalities I’ve observed and learned from— but that’s not the important thing. The important thing is that I learned to do it myself, for myself. It is my experience that anyone who is interested can do it. Anyone can learn and use these simple steps for self-healing. I believe this ability is a part of our inheritance as human beings— if you’re in a human body it comes with the territory.

Selections from The Secrets of Self Healing

The truth about self-healing

Sometimes I think the title of this book should be Heal Yourself While Sleeping . . . or while watching TV, or while driving, or in your office, because the method I am going to give you can be used at any time of day to relieve any condition. It happens to be particularly powerful when used at night because sleeping and dreaming are already natural means of self-healing. By using my method you consciously participate in a process that is as familiar to you as sleeping and dreaming.

The good news is that anyone can do it

Remember the movie Resurrection? The character played by Ellen Burstyn gives her adored husband a red convertible for his birthday. They climb inside for a spin and, only moments later, he crashes the car, killing himself and crippling her.

We watch her struggle and eventually triumph over her injuries. She walks again. As a consequence of her determination in conquering the emotional trauma of her husband’s death and her own physical condition, she receives the gift of healing. Hundreds flock to her healing services. She even gives a powerful demonstration of her abilities to an assembly of medical doctors in a clinical setting. It’s a great movie. However, it’s a great movie that perpetuates an old myth — the ability to heal is a gift received by a chosen few, either because they’re born healers, or as a consequence of serious trauma or suffering.

Turns out the ability to heal is as natural to us as stroking a beloved pet or holding a crying child.

We all need healing all the time

When I was planning a visit to Portland, Oregon over Christmas last year, my daughter April, who lives in Portland, encouraged me to book a session with the woman who does her facials. “You’ll love it, Mom, as soon as she touches your face you know.” April didn’t need to be more explicit. I knew what she was talking about. I booked the session— and after a fifteen minute diagnostic meeting, I scheduled a further hour and a half facial treatment. As soon as Sonia touched me I knew she would not only help my dry and aging skin, which she gracefully described as “mature,” but would make it easier for me to recover from jet lag and avoid catching cold or flu doing my two week stay in snow country.

By now, most of us are sensitive to these abilities in others and we seek them out. The man who cuts my hair is a healer, as is the man who cuts my husband’s hair. So is my car mechanic, my veterinarian, my computer man, and my dentist.

I have sought these people for years. I wouldn’t trust my face, my dogs and cats, my hair, my husband’s hair, my car, my computer or my teeth to someone who wasn’t a healer. I have known for many years that we all need healing all the time, yet it was only a short time ago that I learned how easy it was to provide this miraculous service for oneself.

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A tool for skeptics

I am an odd combination of gullible and skeptical, naive and practical. As a professional psychic I have often attracted skeptics who doubt the reality of what is for me a daily and somewhat ordinary practice. Predict the future? Why not? After you’ve done it often enough, with thousands of clients, some of whom keep coming back again and again for thirty-five years, it doesn’t seem so unusual. But then, I use the “can opener theory” as a practical tool. Here’s how it works.

When someone says to me “I don’t believe in . . . ,” — fill in the blank with anything from past lives to precognitive dreams — I immediately agree, “neither do I.” Few of the tools that I use depend on belief. To me, the techniques I use and practices I teach are like can openers. I judge them on the basis of how effectively and conveniently they open the can. If a particular technique is a good can opener, if it opens the can efficiently and smoothly, I use it. It’s that simple. If it stops working, or gets worn out, I know what to do. I find a new can opener that works as well, or even better. I don’t feel betrayed when a can opener wears out. I replace it with a better one.

Self-healing is a fabulous tool. You don’t have to believe in it, however. You can try it. If it works for you, as it has for me, and for so many others, use it.

You can try self-healing now

If you like, try this simple exercise. Turn on your hands by rubbing them briskly together until the palms tingle. Keeping your fingers softly curved and loose, begin to pulse your hands, palms facing, about ten to twelve inches apart.

Make sure your hands are far enough apart; it’s harder to feel the energy if the palms are too close together. Continue to pulse your hands until you feel a stickiness flowing between them which some describe as feeling like pulling taffy. (It’s been a long time since anybody I know made taffy, but everyone seems to have an idea of how it felt.) Others say it’s as if a slight pressure begins to build between their two palms. However you experience it, when you feel that energy growing between your two hands you have now “turned your hands on.”

Now place your two hands on any part of your body that is troubling you or that you’ve uneasy about. If your body is feeling good right now just place your hands gently over your eyes. The warmth you will shortly feel is more than just the heat from your palms. It is healing energy, universal, always available, and as handy as opposable thumbs. If you are a human being, and if you are alive, you’ve got it. In Part Two, I’ll show you ways to radically expand the amount of energy that flows thorough your hands, plus specific sequences to use so that any treatment you give yourself heals, harmonizes, and balances your entire being, not just your physical body, but your mind, your feelings, and your spirit as well.

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Who is the Holy Ghost anyway?

One of the first Healing Intensives that I gave was attended by a tall, charismatic, born-again Christian named Troy. I was worried that Troy might be offended by some of the metaphysical terminology we were using in the training, specifically the terms “Reiki Master in Spirit” and “Reiki” energy so I went to somewhat longer lengths than usual explaining that the word “reiki,” like “chi,” is simply the Japanese term for universal energy (“rei” = universal, “ki” = vital life force) and had no specific religious significance. To my surprise, Troy interrupted and told me that I was wrong and that he knew exactly what “reiki” was. He explained that “reiki” was the same thing as Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit, the universal Divine force radiating from God, supporting all living things, and capable of any feat of healing.

My astonishment was quickly followed by insight, and since then I always include the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit when I call on healing energy. Many of us have grown up in Christian families, regardless of our present beliefs, and invoking these forces only serves to increase the power of your self-healing.

Three other members of this particular workshop had been raised as Catholics and were equally astonished by Troy’s announcement. One said that she used to plague the nuns by questioning them about the Holy Ghost, and was usually punished for her curiosity. She said the nuns told her the nature of the Holy Ghost was a mystery and not to be questioned.

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